Not a fan of the new market forum posts

The rules now are that if you're making a sale thread that you need to use the market to do so. Okay, no worries. But if you're someone like me, that makes mods, the new format is really kind of unappealing. It auto generates this huge post, full of all kinds of extra info that's totally unrelated to say, a translite design. And all you can get for text is the description you enter, which is buried in the middle in italics and hard to read.

And then you get all of the other ads from that person below, which I'm not interested in, I just clicked the thread for the specific topic it was advertising.

Honestly if I was making a sale thread now I'd probably put in the absolute minimum to make the top post as small as possible and then post as I would normally under it. Which leaves a big opening post that's kind of useless until you scroll past it.

#2 8 years ago

YZF

yzfguy

Pinside+ Frequent

12y 146K 11,175 7

Quit wasting time on here and go finish that MET mod.....just email me direct and cut out the whole want ad middleman!

#3 8 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

Who asked you?

#4 8 years ago

NES

Spitfiren8

Pinside member

10y 82,550 1,937

OP
Quoted from Aurich:
The rules now are that if you're making a sale thread that you need to use the market to do so. Okay, no worries. But if you're someone like me, that makes mods, the new format is really kind of unappealing. It auto generates this huge post, full of all kinds of extra info that's totally unrelated to say, a translite design. And all you can get for text is the description you enter, which is buried in the middle in italics and hard to read.
And then you get all of the other ads from that person below, which I'm not interested in, I just clicked the thread for the specific topic it was advertising.
Honestly if I was making a sale thread now I'd probably put in the absolute minimum to make the top post as small as possible and then post as I would normally under it. Which leaves a big opening post that's kind of useless until you scroll past it.

Totally agree...they are a mess of info. It would be nice to have them back the way they used to be with an optional button click to expand the info splash if wanted.

#5 8 years ago

316

happilymarried05

Inactive member

Raleigh, NC

9y 56,900 768 4 23

not a fan either

#6 8 years ago

ABB

Aurich

Quoted from yzfguy:
Quit wasting time on here and go finish that MET mod.....just email me direct and cut out the whole want ad middleman!

I already sold it, everyone loves it, you must have missed it because it was so cluttered.

#7 8 years ago

BLY

MrBally

Pinside member

Paradise, NV

12y 141K 13,936 22 1

This is what happens when money get into the picture of a once free site.

Beginning of the end........

#8 8 years ago

---

ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

9y 238K 31,369 268 14

I honestly couldn't find the price for ad listings at first. It was so small and separated away from the rest of the actual ad content I missed it the first few times. I was expecting to see it left justified along with everything else.

Also, what about trades? That option seems to have disappeared.

#9 8 years ago

RAR

beelzeboob

Pinside+ Frequent

10y 182K 20,714

Quoted from ForceFlow:
I honestly couldn't find the price for ad listingsat first. It was so small and separated away from the rest of the actual ad and didn't seem to be in a logical place.
Also, what about trades? That option seems to have disappeared.

Trades don't make Pinside money.

#10 8 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

Quoted from MrBally:
This is what happens when money get into the picture of a once free site.

Mo-Munny.jpg

#11 8 years ago

ABB

Aurich

Quoted from MrBally:
This is what happens when money get into the picture of a once free site.
Beginning of the end........

At my day job with Ars Technica we've had a subscription program and VIP forum stuff for well over a decade now. Wasn't the beginning of the end for us.

Nor do I care about kicking down some money to Pinside for selling here, frankly it's the only place I sell mods, I do it for the community, not to run a business.

I just find the new format for market posts overbearing, I like to craft my own opening post, so I can explain the project, post my photos in the text at the right spots, etc.

#12 8 years ago

???

tp

Inactive member

11y 80,050 2,698 16

Quoted from ForceFlow:
I honestly couldn't find the price for ad listings at first. It was so small and separated away from the rest of the actual ad content I missed it the first few times. I was expecting to see it left justified along with everything else.
Also, what about trades? That option seems to have disappeared.

.....................................................
You're not the only one.

#13 8 years ago

ROB

gaspumprob

Pinside member

Ventura, CA

11y 39,550 439 37

I posted a wanted to buy machine ad the other day in this new marketplace setup. I was not happy with the results. Then I gave pinside my credit card number to upgrade the ad so it would be posted in the forum and it took my two bucks but nothing ever changed, the ad was not posted in the forum. I want a refund LOL

Rob

#14 8 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

Quoted from gaspumprob:
I want a refund

CustomerService.jpg

#15 8 years ago

BLY

MrBally

Pinside member

Paradise, NV

12y 141K 13,936 22 1

OP
Quoted from Aurich:
At my day job with Ars Technica we've had a subscription program and VIP forum stuff for well over a decade now. Wasn't the beginning of the end for us.

Did it start as a no charge forum ran as a hobby for several years and then switch to a paid format or was it subscription-based from the beginning?

#16 8 years ago

???

tp

Inactive member

11y 80,050 2,698 16

I typed up 3 different replys today to posts only to not be able to send because the post reply button was nowhere to be found.don't understand why it's only missing sometimes.

#17 8 years ago

DRM

iceman44

Pinside+ Pro!

Boerne, TX

13y 162K 26,902 28 49

"Show me the MONEY Jerry"!!!!....................

#18 8 years ago

ABB

Aurich

Quoted from MrBally:
Did it start as a no charge forum ran as a hobby for several years and then switch to a paid format or was it subscription-based from the beginning?

Started as no charge, added subscription program to keep it alive. Community stepped up and we still have thousands of loyal subscribers. I'm about to revamp our sub program to grow it even more hopefully.

People are willing to pay for their homes on the internet, places that are important to them and provide something they know they can't get elsewhere.

This is it man, RGP is dead and that's that. People can talk about it coming back all they want, but it will never grow back to be the prime spot.

And on top of that, Robin puts in a ton of work, and yet is open to feedback. He's made a lot of changes or added options over the years to make people have a better experience as they've asked for things.

I don't think everything in this relaunch is working for me. I'm not about to run for the hills, and I also have confidence that Robin will adjust things as he sees how they're working out. This post quality bonus thing for instance. I just don't see it doing anything. It might not be the way to go, who knows.

Anyways, for monetization reasons or not I'm just not feeling the new market style in the forum. It's making me reluctant to post something, it just doesn't set the impression I want to give. Hopeful there's room to adjust it. Maybe it could be in some kind of collapsed state, and you can expand it if you want all that detail?

#19 8 years ago

NMS

nikpinball

Pinside member

Cleveland, OH

10y 77,050 1,249 7 30

Yes it's annoying. I dont need user data on every market post.

#20 8 years ago

DHF

fosaisu

Pinside+ Frequent

10y 142K 10,355

Maybe the seller could have the option of using the new look, or of just having their first post in the FST read like a normal post (with a discrete link back to the associated Marketplace ad at the bottom)?

#21 8 years ago

CFL

centerflank

Inactive member

Unknown

11y 165K 13,962 7 206

Whenever I need to sell something from now on, I will just pop into a popular thread for said title/part and post "hey, I got this for sale" Works every time.

brian-fontana_3261293b.jpg

#22 8 years ago

MJH

TimeBandit

redshiftLED.com.au

Sydney, Oz

10y 159K 5,511 3 65

Quoted from MrBally:
This is what happens when money get into the picture of a once free site.
Beginning of the end........

That's too shallow of an analysis. As long as the founder and person who cares about the enterprise is still in charge it will likely be ok. That founder, who cares about the foundations on which the undertaking was built, will steer carefully through the monetisation phase and ensure that the user experience is still paramount and the site remains authentic to its community. What starts the end is when a suit BUYS the site or a financial backer gets some control and then puts an MBA in charge of getting the numbers up. That will kill it every time.

#23 8 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict